August 6th, 2007
Bush signs new law allowing warantless wiretaps
On Sunday, President Bush signed into law legislation that “more or less legalizes the NSA program,” in the words of Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington. The law broadly expands the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants, The New York Times reports.
Congressional aides said “seemingly subtle changes” in legislative language would greatly reduce limits on the government’s ability to monitor phone calls and e-mail messages. The new law for the first time provides a legal framework for the warantless surveillance that the NSA was conducing in secret, aides said.
By changing the legal definition of what is considered “electronic surveillance,” the new law allows the government to eavesdrop on those conversations without warrants — latching on to those giant switches — as long as the target of the government’s surveillance is “reasonably believed” to be overseas.
The legislation to change the surveillance act was rushed through Congress before the August recess began. The new law effectively overrules a ruling by the special intelligence court, which said the government needed to seek court-approved warrants to monitor international calls going through American switches.
The new law gives the attorney general and the director of national intelligence the power to approve the international surveillance, rather than the special intelligence court. The court’s only role will be to review and approve the procedures used by the government in the surveillance after it has been conducted. It will not scrutinize the cases of the individuals being monitored.
